Merry Xmas to the Xians, the majority faithful to the American brand of Xianity

What is an Xian? Formerly known as Christian but now without considering Christ, his life and teachings, as part of their faith. In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the Ghost of Christmas Present describes what I call Xians to Scrooge in this way: “‘There are some upon this earth of yours . . . who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kiln, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.”

The “us” referred to are the 2,000 and more Spirits of Christmas Present that have walked upon Earth since the birth of Christ.

It isn’t like The West Wing or Veep or Designated Survivor. So, what, you might ask, is The Kakistocracy about. Well, if you somehow missed Season One, you didn’t miss much . . . except some of the most royal screw ups ever pulled off at the highest levels of government! Season Two promises even more of the same. Some are expecting a catastrophic level of more of the same.

That first season of The Kakistocracy went by the simple tag: “Government by the worst people!” The second season’s tag makes promises:

More government by the worst people . . .
only more so!

So that it’s not just a remake of the first season, Season Two promises not even to pretend legitimacy or seriousness and start with the most unqualified buffoons available—from the cold opening! That’s a laugh riot, right there!

And in what industry insiders are calling something of a SPOILER ALERT, The Kakistocracy will be rolling out an extended tagline after the first 100 days:

Join us on a laughable, embarrassing, chaotic romp toward The Idiocracy!

We’ve been wondering when we would have a spinoff, and now it’s looking like we won’t have to wait more than four years to see what the “minds” behind The Kakistocracy have in “mind” for the former greatest nation on Earth.

Stay tuned!

This might not be the moment to quote one of the white, slave-holding “Founding Fathers,” but in spite of those marks against him, he wrote these prophetic thoughts during the Revolutionary War:

I doubt whether the people of this country would suffer an execution for heresy, or a three years’ imprisonment for not comprehending the mysteries of the Trinity. But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence prosecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion. (emphasis added)

This is from Notes on the State of Virginia, published in 1787.

“From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill” — Have we hit rock bottom two hundred forty-eight years after July 4, 1776? We can only hope this–and the few years that follow–are the bottom. In the years that come after Donald Trump and his MAGA nightmare are dead and gone, will we rise again to strive toward living up to our founding ideals?

Garbage Man

(with apologies to sanitation workers)

An Indigenous author I admire wrote this about Garbage Man (and nobody has more right to criticize such a white-orange, Euro-American legacy-immigrant than a Native):

Trump is the embodiment of refuse–self-interest and disregard wrapped in decay, like something abandoned in a dumpster. His legacy is a reminder that not all waste is disposable, nor without lasting impact.

The Idiocracy is upon us!

I’m disappointed in US, and I’m embarrassed for US. We have become the village idiots of the world

Looks like liberty has given up on us and moved to . . . Scotland maybe?

Back in the mid-1980s, Don Henley put out a great album titled Building the Perfect Beast. For that project, he wrote a song titled “A Month of Sundays,” in which an old man thinks back on his life and work as he watches life in Reagan’s USA pass in front of him. At one point in the song the lyric goes like this:

My grandson, he comes home from college.
He says, “We get the government we deserve.”
My son-in-law just shakes his head and says,
“That little punk, he never had to serve.”

These lyrics keep playing over in my mind as we approach Election Day 2024. Like the kid coming home from college (I would’ve been about that kid’s age, maybe a little older, when that song came out), I’m thinking we get the government we deserve.

Veterans from the “son-in-law” in this lyric to my father and my friends who served, swore an oath to the U.S. Constitution. Not to the flag or the national anthem. Not to the president. Certainly, not to a man like Donald Trump, who had said that he would like to get rid of the Constitution, undermining and devaluing all the sacrifices made and lives lost. And still, I’m guessing that most of the veterans I know will vote for Trump.

Now, I know many will say that they can’t abide this or that about the liberals, the Democrats, Kamala Harris, and I’m sure I don’t know everything about what she might do as president and might not like everything she might do.

But one thing I feel in my bones is that nothing–NOTHING–Kamala Harris might propose or do threatens the very existence of the United States of America. If any actual Republicans remain out there, a Harris win will be like it’s always been: you live under it for four years and then you get to vote again to try and put your political ideology forward.

I feel just as strongly that if Donald Trump wins, the United States of America will not exist–not as we have known it for going on 250 years–by the time his four years are up. (His four years, I fear, will never be up until he’s passed away.) But the Trumpers (actual Republicans seem no longer to exist in any significant numbers–or they’re all in hiding, hoping that the Trump nightmare will go away), I say, the Trumpers care about nothing but winning. And if he wins this vote, the end of voting is in sight.

If a third world war is brewing with Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran as the aggressors, then Trump is the worst leader we could have. He’s weak and doesn’t know it. He follows after Putin and other dictators like a 12-year-old boy with a crush on the high school football captain. He’s ignorant and doesn’t know it. He’s without talent or savvy and doesn’t know it. Obviously, he’s without any leadership skills. In short, he is without one redeeming quality beyond the common humanness we share that’s buried beneath all of his bullshit.

If the USA actually elects Donald Trump in two weeks, we who made/let it happen will get the government we deserve.

Ye Boomers so afraid of electing a woman of color and so attached to the teats of Trump, how will you survive if you lose your social security benefits (for which you’ve worked for years and years)? Forbes magazine included an article, just a day or so ago, I think, “Trump’s Views On Social Security And Medicare—As Group Warns Funds Could Run Out In 6 Years Under His Plans.”

Are you banking on the belief that he won’t mess with your money and healthcare? You know good and well he will if your benefits will benefit him. He neither cares for nor considers you. (Then a year or so beyond the election he’ll die of old age and cheeseburgers and leave us in the hands of JD Vance.)

To begin with some Etc. that I feel to my soul . . .

and . . .

and . . .

and . . .

He said . . .

She said . . .

They said . . .

and furthermore . . .

and . . .

and finally . . .